to a dear friend

You might not have read Pandora at all if it weren't for a dear friend of mine, Alex Pelzer. I don't recall exactly when we met, but we became fast friends, and despite being on opposite sides of the states, our days contained eerily similar sequences of events. I believe he's the one who introduced me to the comic Boy Meets Boy. As I have said elsewhere, this is the comic that made me realize that I could have a comic online. I enjoyed it but did not base Pandora! off of it; I had been doing comics all my life, but never considered showing them anywhere. It was a difficult choice, but once I showed the character sketches and first comic to Alex, he assured me that people would love it. I wasn't convinced. I shared with him new ideas and sketches, but didn't do anything else with them. Every day he pestered me to get Pandora! online. After nearly a year of badgering, I took the steps to put Pandora! online and it debuted on December 15th, 2003.

There is a support character named Xander Karloff in the Pandora series that is based on Alex. When he mentioned being a comic character, I thought about what story of mine to put him in - and the answer was obvious. He ought to be in Pandora. Xander is based on my initial notion of Alex rather than as I had come to know him, as per his request. This character is the only character in Pandora that was created in such a way.

Thank you, Alex, for believing in me when I did not believe in myself.

The above image is from the dummy book black and white version.